Bad Luck
Winstead Castle, B15, 3001 Overseer Karl Winters raised was his rifle and fired it into the blizzard, killing not one but two enemies. The raid on this certain UCF stronghold was a total surpise even for the Confederates. Orders were last-minute and had come down from the Director himself, not from the other Overseers. But the blizzard was totally unexpected. It had come out of nowhere, and the castle seemed to be at the very centre it. The barricade had been broken two hours ago, and the UCF seemed as confused as the Confederates about the storm. Winters was completely aware that getting lost in a blizzard was simple for humans; one human leg after all is a centimetre shorter than the other, causing the person to walk around in circles blindly. But Karl was prepared. After the UCF commanders shouted "Retreat!" and the blizzard set in, he hiked back to the local Confederate depot and retrieved a pair of thermal-vision specs, that were now perched hon his face. In the snow, the UCF were sitting ducks to him. The only drawback being he could not identify friend from foe. The remnants of the UCF blockade were trying to get back into the castle, but the doors were locked. Karl quickly hosed them down, and made sure the area was clear before activating his tracker. Conrad Schumander followed the blip on the little device and came to the door of the castle. It had a perfect hole in it, indicating Winters had used a resonance weapon to gain access. Two other soldiers behind him were joking about some unrelated topic - he didn't pay attention. Inside Winters was holding his rifle pointed up a flight of spiralled stairs, motioning for them to get behind him. He mouthed something like, "Sombody up there." Conrad nodded and started scaling the stairs as silent as a mouse, and the rest of the team followed. Then Conrad saw it. And so did Winters. The thing was hunched over a cube of blackened stone, using its nails to scratch little runes onto the surface of the object. It was a golden colour, with scales like those of a lizard. In a way, it looked like a lizard as well, but nobody could be sure as even looking at it made their eyes hurt. To Conrad it looked...unreal. It wasn't just a standard lizard; it was constantly shifting; he realised there were tears in his eyes. He closed them and opened them again, just in time to see it leap at them. Shumander ran smack into the blizzard, wearing Winters' thermal goggles and not caring whether he was scared or tired. He just wanted to survive. It was extremely fast, and anything organic it touched crumbled instantly to powder. Winters had been the first casualty; it was only bad luck on his part. There was the sound of footsteps to his right, even in the storm, and Conrad fired at it. A further inspection revealed he had mortally wounded a loose UCF agent, and he took something from the dying man's hands. It was an orb, and inside was a hundred more spinning orbs, all sending bolts of electricity dancing around. A shriek and the UCF turned into dust, while the orb sprouted a bolt of lightning that struck the lizard on the head, turning it to dust. Shumander clutched the orb to his body, sure there was more of those things out there.